Israel moves to TAKE OVER the West Bank

Right, so while for many of us our gaze as far as Israel goes remains on what they are doing in Gaza, we need to take a look at the West Bank too, because where Israel have chosen to raze Gaza to the ground with the far right wing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of madmen wanting to seize it for redevelopment now that it has been flattened, in the West Bank, it has been more about land grabs from Palestinians, and the construction of illegal settlements, settlers from around the world seizing land and property, a completely different kind of takeover. Well things might be shifting there too.
Israel’s far right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, ardently pro settlement, has gained new powers from the Israeli military with regards to the West Bank and is wasting no time using them, allegedly with Netanyahu’s support, to fully annex the entire West Bank, seizing it for the Israeli state.
Right, so if we were expecting Gaza to fall and be assimilated into the Israeli state as part of illegal moves to take control of land that isn’t theirs by force, we might have been looking in the wrong place.
Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the far right Religious Zionist Party, a coalition partner in Netanyahu’s crackpot cobbled together coalition, and his finance minister, has obtained new powers from the Israeli military, making it possible to actively begin annexing the entire West Bank, the largest portion of what remains of the state of Palestine, and home to some 3 million people, the vast majority of which are Palestinian, somewhere in the region of 12% identify as Jewish, as opposed to some 85% Muslim.
So how has this come about then Damo? Well, on the 29th May, the IDF transferred responsibility for dozens of bylaws from the Civil Administration, which is the Israeli body that governs the West Bank, to officials in the Defence Ministry of Netanyahu’s regime. Now as Netanyahu’s finance minister, the equivalent of our Chancellor of the Exchequer, how has this played into Smotrich’s hands then? Well the Israeli Ministry of Defence is set up rather differently to ours, and basically comprises representatives of numerous other departments, with a defence minister effectively chairing things between them and if you google Israel’s Ministry of Defence, you can go on there and access a pull down menu which tells you all the different departments which form the Ministry of Defence, and the Finance department is amongst them, making Smotrich a defence minister as well, notably in this role is his oversight over the Civil Administration therefore these newly transferred powers have been handed to Smotrich and his team in defence as their responsibility to administer and this is absolutely something they wanted because Smotrich has long been of the opinion that to successfully seize the West Bank and make it part of Israel, control of the Civil Administration was the key and now they’ve basically got it. This all happened thanks to a stitch up basically that happened in February 2023, where a new administration for settlements was pushed for by Smotrich and his equally hard right fellow coalition minister Itamar Ben Gvir. With the Civil Administration being run essentially by the IDF, this new Settlement Administration gave Smotrich the ‘in’ he needed in Defence, and brings us to where we are today. It’s almost as if he’d planned all of this.
For context the Civil Administration’s primary role is in planning construction, covering an area Israel calls Area C, which comprises some 60% of the West Bank which is under full Israeli administrative control, now under the control of Smotrich.
So what have they got power over now then? Israel now has legal control over planning decisions in the Civil Administration controlled areas of the West Bank, agriculture, parks and forestry, local bathing etc etc and given that upon being appointed finance minister, Smotrich approved the building of thousands of new homes in illegal settlements, he can dial that up another notch again now and why wouldn’t he? He is literally a settler himself, he lives in the West Bank himself! And as has become characteristic of Israeli arrogance, he’s publicly spoken out on his plans, without hiding a damn thing as this Guardian excerpt shows:
‘Speaking at a meeting of his Religious Zionism party, Smotrich told colleagues that he was “establish[ing] facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [an Israeli term for the occupied West Bank] an integral part of the state of Israel”.
“We will establish sovereignty … first on the ground and then through legislation. I intend to legalise the young settlements [illegal outposts],” Smotrich said in comments reported by Haaretz. “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Annexation and the acquisition of territory by military conquest is forbidden as one of the founding principles of international law including the UN charter.
The comments by Smotrich echoed recorded remarks he made at a gathering of supporters in the West Bank, first disclosed by the New York Times, in which he appeared to refer to the administrative changes as “mega-dramatic” and a “change a system’s DNA”.
Speaking about his acquisition of new legal powers, he said “[we] created a separate civilian system,” adding that to avoid international criticism the government had kept the defence ministry involved in the process, making it seem as if the military was still the main player in governing the West Bank.
“It will be easier to swallow in the international and legal context,” he said.’
Essentially if Smotrich makes good on this and there is absolutely no reason not to believe he will, then the two state solution will be completely dead. Israel will have killed it off completely, the only remaining chunk of Palestine would then be Gaza and for how much longer?
Netanyahu is also on side with this annexation apparently and why wouldn’t he be? For one he’s already overseeing a genocidal apartheid state and given his long time pulling the levers of power in no small part is this by his design in recent years, but equally, he’s now more reliant on the far right than ever before, now that liberal voices have deserted his coalition, Benny Gantz pulling his National Unity Party out and back into opposition because there is no end game in sight under Netanyahu’s administration, but in no small part can that be seen now, because the plan is something National Unity likely would never have agreed to, namely tearing up international law and seizing lands they have no right to.
This annexation is in effect happening behind the worlds back and they hope we won’t notice and certainly whilst this is going grossly underreported, whilst our politicians pass no comment on it at all and when one Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, ended it’s lead editorial just yesterday by saying on this story:
‘Netanyahu, Smotrich and their colleagues are annexing the West Bank right now. They are instituting apartheid and destroying the two-state solution. And if they succeed, Israel will cease to exist as a democratic country.’
Well, they really ought to be saying something. From the river to the sea, Smotrich will annex it and make it part of Israel. It doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?
The two state solution is being destroyed, the West is paying for it, allying itself with those making it happen, it is institutional apartheid when the Palestinians will continue to be treated as second class citizens within what would then be Israel, likely to be treated even worse.
The fly in Smotrich’s ointment, which might be a very small fly all things considered, is that what he is doing, whilst perhaps on strong legal footing within Israel, is completely illegal still under international law. It’s whether the UN, hands permanently tied on the security council by Israel allies in the US, will do anything to stop it. Recognising Palestine as a state would give it more protections, but the US keep shooting that down as well.
It is illegal for annexation to take place under international law, it is illegal for occupiers as Israel are of Palestinian territory, to move their own people in, yet they’ve been doing so for years without any censure being made against them. So why should we expect action now?
This is going woefully underreported, so that our politicians don’t face awkward questions over something that frankly should be front page news in the west given our governments have enabled this genocide in Gaza and whilst we’ve been looking at that in horror, the creeping annexation of the West Bank has been coming down the line, so that it is no longer creeping, but actually now happening and it needs calling out.
All of this ongoing land seizure and ongoing attacks on Palestinians will only continue to see more aggression escalate along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon however, and if US reports on this are accurate any annexation of the West Bank might be a moot point if Hezbollah’s capabilities are indeed capable of tearing down Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, such is the arsenal they have apparently built up and could bring to bear if tensions continue to increase. Find out all about that story in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.